Andrew Forster

Graduated 2009

Biography

Andrew Forster graduated from MMU in 2009, winning the Michael Schmidt Prize for best Portfolio. He is originally from South Yorkshire but he lived in Scotland for twenty years before moving to Cumbria in 2008. He has published three full-length collections of poetry, Fear of Thunder (2007) and Territory (2010), both Flambard Press, and Homecoming (2014) (Smith/Doorstop). Fear of Thunder was shortlisted for the 2008 Forward Prize for Best First Collection and two poems from it, ‘Horse Whisperer’ and ‘Brothers’, appeared in the AQA GCSE syllabus. Currently he has poems featured in the Unseen poems anthology.

From 2003 to 2008 he was Literature Development Officer for Dumfries & Galloway and from 2008 to 2015 he was Literature Officer at the Wordsworth Trust. He is co-editor of the online poetry magazine ‘The Compass’ and runs a number of projects freelance, including the Michael Marks Awards for Poetry Pamphlets. He has recently returned to MMU to research for a PhD into poetry and the environment.